splenda tastes great in many things, particularly diet stewarts (my favorite root beer)
but I actually got used to and love the semi-artificial flavor of DC, its very light and refreshing.

Splenda is better and how about switching to green tea. Lots of health benefits to that instead of coffee.

A google search on the "side effects of Splenda" turns up 47,400 articles, many of which state that the chlorine in Splenda is likely to cause serious health problems in the long run.

What evidence can you provide to support your claim that it is "totally safe?"

Please don't just site the fact that U.S. government allows it to be sold; they also allowed hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup into the food supply and there is now compelling evidence that both of those products are extremely dangerous to human health in the long run.

Then we'd all better stop taking in any salt. You know, NaCl? ;)

Oh, and a google search of "side effects of water" comes up with over 10 MILLION hits. ;)

We take in Chlorine every time we eat salt, that's why. Our bodies have a lot of chlorine in them naturally.

Baby steps, please! Let's not throw my world upside down all at once (said as I sip on my second mug of coffee of the day).

I adore coffee. I love grinding whole beans. I love the smell of it brewing. I would love to roast my own. I have a coffee bean plant. The thought of no coffee makes me feel really mean.

Maybe I do need to let go a little bit! :p

I wouldn't say it's totally safe. From what I understand it's 3 Hydrogen atoms replaced by 3 Chlorine atoms. Tate & Lyle, a British sgar refiner, came up with it and licensed it to McNeil to market & sell.

FWIW, the sacherine-induced cancer in lab rats was due to a very high proportion of the stuff fed to them. Equivalent, I believe, of a normal-sized can for a single rat daily!

It's not the individual atoms that will kill you but the combination they come in. NaCl as a molecule may be harmless and necessary for life but I wouldn;'t want to ingest Na and Cl by themselves. Similarly, H, C and N are all necessary for human life but I wouldn't want to touch the combination molecule of HCN (a.k.a. hydrogen cyanide).

Black Tea is good too. Though it does not have as many antioxidants as greeen tea, it still has a bunch.

As for the side effects of Splenda, I'm a little worried, but I'm still using it. I don't think it can be any worse that saccharin or aspartmine (sic?). If you do the same side effects google search on those, you'll find problems with them too. As I said in the women's forum splenda thread, I drink a ton of splenda with my iced tea.

I'm convinced that it's less risky for me to eat splenda than use the equivalent amount of sugar instead. A cup of sugar is a lot of calories that my body doesn't need, plus regular sugar makes me feel tired because of it spikes blood sugar levels.

There's a big difference between the covalently bound chlorine in Splenda and the chloride ions present in salt. Chloride, like many other ions present in the electrolyte fluids in our bodies is essential. Free chlorine, which exists as Cl2, is toxic--just ask anyone around a public pool where they use cylinders of chlorine gas to chlorinate the water.

According to the Splenda website:

SPLENDA® is the brand name for the ingredient sucralose. It is made through a patented, multi-step process that starts with sugar and converts it to a no calorie, non-carbohydrate sweetener. The process selectively replaces three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule with three chlorine atoms.

They also have a completely synthetic way to make Splenda (which shows up in their patent) that, of course, wouldn't start with sugar but is probably much more expensive.

Chlorine is present naturally in many of the foods and beverages that we eat and drink every day ranging from lettuce, mushrooms and table salt.

This statement in itself is a little disingenuous as they are equating different forms of chlorine. Most of the chlorine you ingest is actually ionic chloride from salts.

In the case of sucralose, its addition converts sucrose to sucralose, which is essentially inert. The result is an exceptionally stable sweetener that tastes like sugar, but without sugar’s calories. After consumption, sucralose passes through the body without being broken down for energy, so it has no calories, and the body does not recognize it as a carbohydrate.

If indeed all of the Splenda passes right through your digestive system, then it is an ideal artificial sweetener.

My taste experiences pretty much match those of entropy in posts #9 and #16.

And without being too clinical ;) I notice a slight 'digestive system' change when I went through a few 12-packs of DC-Sp that I picked up a few weeks ago when they were on sale ($1.99 per 12-pack plus $5 rebate on 5).

The other thing to keep in mind is that the expanding variations of Coke and Pepsi et al are part of the battle for supermarket shelf-space. Every new variation of a Coke product offers the chance to displace a Pepsi product on the shelf (and vice versa).

I have a preference for Aspartame. Unlike Diet Coke, Pepsi changed Pepsi One from Aspartame to Splendra without retaining the old formula in a different product unless you count Diet Pepsi which I don't. I went around to all the stores in town and bought all the silver cans of Pepsi One. Here and there I find an old can or bottle of Pepsi One in some small convenience store while travelling but otherwise I have switched to Diet Coke.

To answer the "Where's the Splenda" condition, it's a question of availability. The manufacturer apparently underestimated the amount of demand for Splenda, and we're actually in a shortage situation right now until a new facility is online.

The company I work for has contracted for a certain amount of Splenda per year at $XXX/lb (yes, it is a 3-digit price per lb - but it's >600x the sweetness of sugar). Any new products we come out with above the quota have to pay roughly quadruple the price. And, if they can put that kind of pinch on the largest US-based packaged food company, imagine what they can do to smaller food manufacturers.

Of course, they may not be rushing the new facility too much if they're still selling the product for >$2000/lb to non-contract customers.

On the safety issue, I'm well aware of what it takes to get a food ingredient certified onto the GRAS list (Generally Recognized As Safe). It's not trivial. Basically, what's involved are clinical studies to define what the upper limit of ingestion for a person should be per day to confirm no ill effects. The upper limit is generally very conservatively stated (ie the daily intake of Splenda might be based on the edge case of a person who drinks in excess of a gallon of diet soda per day).

The whole "exchanging of atoms" thing is a red herring at best if you're talking about swapping hydroxyl (-OH) groups for chlorine. For example:

Switch a -H to a -OH, and you've gone from a flammable gas (ethane) to a flammable liquid with fun side effects (ethanol).

Switch from that -H to a -CO-CH3, and you've got a synthetic banana flavor (ethyl acetate). Extend the chain a bit, and you're at a pear-like flavor.

Change the orientation of -H and -OH groups in a sugar, and you've gone from sucrose to lactose, and you've caused gastric distress in those who lack a lactase enzyme.

No it's not you. All artificial sweeteners do taste disgusting. For decades I was a Coke purist. I wanted all the sugar and caffeine that God intended Coke to have. :p I could easily drink 6 - 8 cans of the stuff every day. Sometimes more.

Surprise :eek: Get past 40 and develope high blood pressure. So no caffeine and sugar for me. I now drink 1 or 2 DC Caffeine Free a day but only with food. After 2+ years I still can not drink the stuff alone. I don't understand how anyone can say that any of the sweeteners taste like sugar. Sorry, but something has got to be wrong with their taste buds. With food I can tolerate the stuff and it gives me my "Coke" fix. But, nothing tastes better with a Chicago Lou Malnati's Pizza than the "real thing".

Cooking with Splenda
 

My wife said it doesn't bake as well--her coffee cake wasn't done in the time it usually takes with the real thing.

I've also had a splenda sweetened Ben & Jerry's ice cream and it's kinda chalky, not smooth and creamy.